CONTRAT DE NOT'RP !

- Statut du RP : privé
- Type de RP : FB fin 2007, près d’un an après l’arrivée de Katja dans la Confrérie.
- Tour de jeu : Mey - Sip
- Délai maximum d'attente de réponse : 1 semaine
- Sauts de tours : 3
- Autre : English :)

This is a terrible idea, I’m definitely going to regret it.

Except that this thought was about as improductive as the first 17 times it had crossed her mind, so Katja resolutely ignored it. When Dalton had first suggested to go to the swimming pool, she had agreed without a second thought. She loved swimming and she already spent a lot of time at the pool as a lifeguard. Except Dalton wanted to go there outside of the opening hours. During the night. She was so getting fired if her bosses found out. Well, at least this pool was small enough not to have things like cameras and other devices that would make it much more difficult to slip in unnoticed.

Why had she agreed again? Ah yes, because it was almost Dalton’s birthday and it worked well as a present. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder as she stripped to her swimsuit if she wasn’t making a terrible mistake. If she got away with this, she would have the proof that she had a guardian angel somewhere.

Of course he'd have to use the pretty pleaaaaase it's almost my birthdaaay strategy to convince Katja to do something "illegal". Sometimes he wondered whether she had any idea what kind of group she had joined. Illegal activity was not frowned upon. Still, she had said yes and he was currently changing into his very first pair of swimming trunks. Obviously stolen. Don't tell Katja.

Once in her swimsuit, Katja took her towel and took off in search of Dalton. She already knew which pool she’d lead him to. It was large and deep enough to swim in comfortably, but not as frigid as the olympic pool. The chutes weren’t working, though. They’d have to come back during the opening hours to use those.

He's not gonna lie. It's strange to be nearly naked in a public space (even though the public was gone in this scenario). Prime reason for the lack of knowledge about pools (or swimming in general) : he'd never be able to show himself like this among humans. Have no fear, Dalton's here ! he announced loudly while teleporting several kickboards into the pool.

She winced when she heard Dalton’s voice echo through the empty pool. Clearly, the building was not made out of sound-absorbing materials. "If we don’t want to get kicked out, we might want to avoid attracting the neighbours." Spoilsport? Perhaps, but getting kicked out would also really spoil the fun. Without further ado, she dived in, sure that he would follow.

Party pooper ! He watched her dive in the water with ease. Oh this was surely gonna be a piece of cake. How hard could it be to swim ? You just splash around somewhat. Apparently babies are natural swimmers (he read that on the internet) so why would it be any different for a grown man. A MAN !

Still.

He waited.

Just a moment.

A tiny one.

"Hey! I'm just making sure we can keep the party going without anyone crashing it." She went under and made a few strokes under water. That mutation of hers was a blessing in this type of environment. When she came back up, he was still standing on the edge of the pool. "Are you coming? This one isn't cold, I promise." It didn't even occur to her that maybe he couldn't swim. After all, he was the one who had suggested this completely mad and entirely illegal trip.

Yeah, of course ! He's a terrible liar. He might be a criminal, but he's an honest one. How hard can it be if babies can do it, right ?! At least she had a fair warning before he jumped off the diving board, canonballing into the water.

Well.

Turns out it's not that easy — despite his frantic arm movements.

So that didn't go too well. How do babies do it ? Still, he hadn't been worried. Katja was a lifeguard. If there was anyone in the Brotherhood that wouldn't laugh at a sixteen-year-old not knowing how to swim, it was her. I thought survival instinct would kick in or some shit like that ! He laughed, pushing himself up on his elbows. Don't worry. I knew you'd save me.

He groaned. I'm not a baby. I don't need to hold someone's hands while kicking my feet. I've watched all the YouTube videos. I'm actually an expert now. Piece of cake. He just needed practice. And yes. Maaaaybe doing a cannonball hadn't been the right decision, but why start small, am I right ?

She sighed. "And I’ve watched all the James Bond movies, that doesn’t mean I know how to use a gun." But there was probably no point trying to convince him with words. She pushed herself off the edge, back into the water. "Alright, expert, no handholding then. But please get back in the water more calmly this time."

Yeah yeah. He slid into the water following her to the shallow end of the pool. So how are we gonna do this thing ? Breaststroke, crawl, freestyle ? He was indeed well-versed in the terminology, although that meant nothing for his actual swimming skills. That particular talent was not even closely related to his mutant abilities.

"Whichever you’re most comfortable doing." Her first objective for now was to make sure that he was able to keep his head above the water. Normally, she would first have taught him how to float on his back, but she suspected that he might not react well to that suggestion. It probably wasn’t active enough to his taste.

Hell yeah ! I wanna do the dolphin crawl ! He mimed the arm gestures he had seen in the videos (above water, obviously), terribly excited at the prospect of emulating the professional swimmers.

Clearly he’d never heard of starting small. Oh well, she was beginning to learn that trial-and-error was a more effective method with Dalton than trying to explain to him why starting with the most difficult option possible was not a good plan. "Be my guest, dolphin."

I'll need instructions, Mr. Miyagi. He was already jumping up and down in the water as if he was trying to warm up. The water made movement feel much heavier. It's funny. Suddenly water ballet made much more sense.

"Mr. Who?" A gap in her cinematic culture, no doubt. Despite the fact that she had watched tons of English and American movies before moving to New York because her parents wanted their children to improve their English.

Seriously? Dalton was shocked. Karate Kid! Don't tell me you haven't seen it. That's like saying you haven't seen Star Wars. And please don't tell me you haven't seen that either. Or actually do, cause then I know we'll have to organize a movie night cause daaaaamn girl. Where's your sense of culture!

Well more specific instructions, obviously! Not that he'd freely admit that his reference videos had a total lack of instructions. She had probably guessed anyway. But why watch videos about teaching? Was there anything more snooze-worthy?

He raised his hand like an eager highschooler. Very out-of-character. Yes, ma'am. Me, me, me !

She replied in her best teacherly tone: ”Yes? You, the blue devil in the front row.”